Delhi, India

Enakshi woke up from her sleep and found the other side of her bed empty. Wrapping the sheet around her body she entered the washroom to finish her morning routine. Changing her clothes as she came down for breakfast she saw Abhimanyu at the table.

"Good morning." Enakshi greeted him and sat for breakfast. Abhimanyu was still not over yesterday's matter when Enakshi spoke again about such fact.

"When are you taking me to meet your parents officially?"

"They had already met you during the engagement. What more do you want?"

Abhimanyu was not in a mood to communicate, as bringing Enakshi to his parents' house could create more fuss.

"I know. But at least I need to know them too right?"

Abhimanyu's mind was screaming by saying,

"You would be easily compared with Radhica the moment you try to know them." But his lips remained sealed without uttering anything.

Somewhere he knew that Radhica was way too different and Enakshi was never his parents' first choice. Not because of her job or modeling career but for her nature. They had a different view of her. And he doubted himself whether they would ever accept Enakshi in the future.

"With time you would know. They still need some time to accept my decision." He simply avoided the topic by saying that.

"Accept your decision? Avi, what's wrong with me?"

"We have already discussed Enakshi. Let's just not drag this anymore. I am tired." Abhimanyu's tired voice couldn't reach Enakshi's ears. She kept on screaming and spatting her venomous words.

"Yes, absolutely now you are tired. I just wonder how you cannot see the manipulations that the bitch did to your family. They can't even bear me."

Somewhere she was partially right on her point. Accepting a girl like Enakshi over Radhica would never be an easy job for anyone. They both have hell and heaven differences. But the major point that she was talking about is completely against Radhica's nature. Abhimanyu never allowed her much to meet his family or her parents after their marriage. He kept her isolated and away from everything. His parents visited his mansion at different times. Every time they had asked the girl about visiting her in-laws she kept on building excuses. Not because she wanted to avoid her in-laws, but Abhimanyu strictly prohibited her from doing that. In every possible way he tried to portray her like a vamp in his story, but every time her sanity proved her innocence. But was that necessary? In the process of gaining more, he has started losing more. Of course, he loved Enakshi since he saw her. But was that love? Or just a physical need? If it was not him on that day as the investor of the show, Enakshi for sure won't mind grabbing the next hand who would provide her the same luxury. But Abhimanyu had never seen the reality and Enakshi hid her true color to date.

Everything happened so fast that he was not sure of choosing a single one at that time. Enakshi wasn't ready also to marry him when his marriage was already fixed with Radhica. Even though he had mentioned her to his parents, they were partially ready but Enakshi wasn't. The day he got married Enakshi broke down and told him to get away from his marriage. But it was too late. He had to bear the marriage and Radhica. Since then he had planned to marry Enakshi but when he finally got free to proceed, something started bothering him. Enakshi had a smile of triumph the day she found him throwing away Radhica. But only if she could see that Abhimanyu had already intertwined Radhica in his life. Her plan of separating those two succeeded but the invisible string remained in between intact. Sometimes she regretted her decision of postponing the marriage at that time. Only if she could know that the nerd would gain a place in his heart someday. Yes, the nerd. She always envied Radhica for everything.

Abhimanyu remained silent and finished his breakfast. He was not in a mood to go to work today. Enakshi got ready for her shoot and left the breakfast table. As she was about to leave Abhimanyu asked about her return time. Informing him with a small note she gave him a final hit.

"Remember Abhimanyu, Radhica has left. It's almost two years and you need to make a decision now."

He was no longer interested in a barge with some come-back replies. His silence made the situation easy and she left. Looking around in the house he felt an ache in his heart. Isn't the mansion looking more empty nowadays? As he was planning to join his office late one of his male servants came towards him.

"Sahab didi ka kamra saf kar de?"

(Sir, May I clean sister's (Radhica) room?")

Abhimanyu's trance broke with his words. The boy who was standing in front joined as a servant a few years back. He was also young when Radhica got married and since then this servant used to call her didi (elder sister).

It was Radhica's idea. She never allowed any of his servants to call her Madam or Memsahab. She was young and always preferred to be treated like that instead of some grumpy landlady. Abhimanyu walked towards the first floor and opened Radhica's room. It was his rule to let the servants enter to clean only under his supervision. The boy entered and started dusting. He was cleaning carefully when Abhimanyu's eyes landed on the wall. There was only one picture of Radhica hanging in the middle. She was holding a bunch of flowers in her hand while smiling looking towards something. That candid picture was taken by one of her cousins and she was gifted that during their visit. Her cousin forced her to put the picture on display and every time Abhimanyu entered her room he controlled his gaze to avoid looking at that picture. Her smile and eyes were way too captivating. Every time he looked at them, his surroundings froze, his palpitations got increased. He tried a lot of time to remove that picture but every time his hands trembled before throwing it out. Once he informed one of his servants to bring down that picture. But he gave an epic reply to him which led him to lose his job.

"Kyun sahab. Kitni achi picture hai. Ise kyun fekna."

(Why sir? The picture is nice. Why would you throw it?)

Abhimanyu didn't throw that picture but he threw away that servant. As today the cleaning got completed he decided to sit in the soothing atmosphere of Radhica's room. The white curtains were moving a little as he told the boy to keep the window open for a while. Trailing his fingers on the silk of curtains he tried to touch her presence. He had seen her sitting near this a lot of the time. Especially after that incident, which took a week for her to recover from the trauma. Walking towards the study table he stood for some time. He couldn't remember how many times he had seen her sleeping on this table leaning his head on a book with her reading glasses on. His mind started searching for those flashbacks and found one to dive deep into that.

Flashback Starts

Most of the time he used to call Jaya Maa to get herself on the bed. Only once he entered tiptoed in her room while she was sleeping on a heavy book peacefully. He was about to call for Jaya Maa when her little sleeping figure caught his eyes. She was looking like a cute little panda who just got tired of day's work. Her slightly parted lips due to her rested cheeks on the book, her fallen glasses on her nose made her more adorable. Some loose curls were scattered over her forehead making her look more natural. He was feeling to squeeze her entirely but restrained himself thinking about the result. For how long he was admiring her he didn't know. Her small stirring in the sleep brought him back.

Removing her glasses he took her in his lap and walked back to the bed. Laying her down when his lips were almost touching her soft petals an unknown sensation ran through his body. Ignoring that he pull the duvet and was about to turn when he heard something. She was mumbling something that reached his ears. Bringing his ears near to her mouth he heard the most unexpected sleep talk.

"As the carbonyl compounds........"

"Really?" Abhimanyu mentally screamed. People take their husband's name in sleep or their lover's name. This girl was blabbering a chapter's information from her study?

"Shh... Sleep." Abhimanyu pressed his rough thumb on her soft lips and she eventually stopped her chanting. Leaving her sleeping petite he came out of the room not to look behind again. He knew if his devil got overpowered the girl won't be able to survive.

Flashback Ends

No matter what, he could never forget such memories. But why those are haunting him now? Why those small incidents were knocking on his mind so frequently? His brain was ignoring the truth but his heart was uttering some unknown words.

"I don't love her dad. I love Enakshi." He remembered what he had said once to his father.

"The day you would fall in love with Radhica, you would understand how shallow your so-called love is for Enakshi. What you are thinking as love is just an illusion of love, not a real one."

Each of his father's words was stabbing him badly. What's going on with him? If things would go like this he would be going to be mad. No matter what, he has to do something. The more surprising fact was, since the day of their divorce, nobody got any trace of her. She just vanished like camphor. How could that be possible?

Scolding himself once more he stood up to join some meetings. Before locking the door of her room he walked straight towards the big mirror in that room. The only word he mumbled at that time was.

"I don't love you Radhica Singhania."

But whom he was convincing? Himself? His inner voice spoke in his mind once again. The mirror was talking back to him.

"Are you trying to tell yourself? Or you are trying to tell the world?"

"There was no truth and there is nothing to tell to anyone. There will be nothing. She was nothing."

"Then why do you allow her to engulf your mind every time?"

"I don't. I never did."

"Really? Keep lying Abhimanyu. But whom you are fooling?"

"Shut up. Just shut up." Abhimanyu shouted over the mirror reflection and understood his mistake immediately. Being at the age of 30 he had become more like a teenager. The way he had started reacting he could easily sense his changes.

"Neither you let me live peacefully after marriage nor you are letting me live after a divorce."

Saying that Abhimanyu stormed out of the room locking the door behind. Taking the car keys he rushed towards his office. He needed more distraction now.